VoCats
by claritycat
Summary: When Rin brings home a cardboard box full of stray cats, none of her family members know what to do. Except Meiko who immediately votes to kick them out. But that night, a mysterious figure visits the Vocaloid Family's home and does the unthinkable: switches the Vocaloids with the stray cats!
1. Chapter 1: the strays

VoCats

Chapter ONE: the strays

Len Kagamine used to think that he knew what was to be expected with having a sister.

He knew to expect practical misfortunes like being unable to use the bathroom when he needed to and having to watch shoujo anime when he'd much rather watch a shounen one.

But what he also knew was that this sort of thing only happened if your sister wasn't HIS sister. Then it was safe to say that not one of your expectations would be safe.

Especially when, on a pure whim, your twin sister brings home a big box full of various stray cats and tells you that she is now adopting them all.

A hypothetical scenario which was now all at once now turning into his life.

"She must have picked them all up when I wasn't looking," explained Miku apologetically, thinking back to her long, heated and now admittedly pointless argument with the produce vendor over how many recipes can be made containing negi spring onions. "I'm sorry," she said, hanging her head in shame while Rin surreptitiously released the cats from their cardboard box confinement.

Meiko Sakine, the official mother-figure to Len, his 'sisters', and oftentimes Kaito, gave a deep, long-suffering sigh. "It can't be helped. I suppose we'll have to keep them for now."

Rin cheered, promptly picking up two sandy-colored kittens from their escape route and cuddled them

"Rin, stop!" cried Len, rushing over to Rin's side. "You're hurting them!"

Over in the living area, as caught up in the plight of the kittens as he was, Kaito first noticed the large, white tomcat with long fur tentatively licking the unattended lid of a Neapolitan ice cream carton. After a moment or two, the cat paused in licking, almost as though considering whether the flavor agreed with him. It seemed to, since he lowered his head and licked the lid some more.

"Hey kitty," Kaito smiled. "You like ice cream too?"

The cat meowed.

Kaito laughed, tipping over the carton so the cat could have more.

At that moment, a slender female with short, reddish-brown fur landed on a high shelf. In her mouth was the neck of one of Meiko's half-finished sake bottles.

"Hey! Give that back, you mangy furball!" Meiko shouted, as Miku finally wrenched one of her precious negi stalks out of the mouth of a cream and white furred kitten. In retaliation, the kit spat indignantly, but then went after the tail of the one that Len was holding.

Rin, who had relaxed her grip on one of the kittens, looked over the scene and burst out laughing. "Hahaha~! These kitties act just like us!"

Meiko, who was still trying to retrieve her sake, scowled. "Speak for yourself!" she sniffed, "Annoying little monsters."

"Aw, don't be like that, Mei-chan. They're cute, see?" Kaito held up the white tom, whose tongue darted out to lick Meiko's nose.

Meiko wasn't charmed.

"Just keep them away from me," Meiko said, stalking away to the kitchen to grab a fresh can of sake.

Kaito looked after her, pulling the cat onto his lap and petting it. "Don't worry, kitty, she'll come around." The cat looked at him, then meowed agreeably.

Kaito's expression turned thoughtful. "You need a name. I can't keep calling you 'kitty' can I?" He held the cat out at arm's length. The cat blinked it's azure eyes at him. "I know!" Kaito smiled. "I think I'll call you Aoi. Okay?"

The cat, Aoi, purred. "Okay, from this moment on you are Aoi." Kaito tucked the cat under his arm and headed, coincidentally, to the kitchen. "Come on. Let's go get you some more ice cream."

Meiko lay awake, staring at the ceiling of her bedroom. What was running through her mind?

Guess.

"Stupid little furballs," she ranted mentally. "As if taking care of a whole household of people wasn't enough, now we have two times the mouths to feed. And we'll have to clean up after them. And take them for check-ups at the vet if they get sick! Damn, this is unbelievable!."

Meiko rolled over onto her side, pulling the comforter over her shoulders, still fuming, but beginning to tire. "Ugh." she thought sleepily. "I'll figure out a way to get rid of those ... " Yawn. Sigh. "... nuisances. Maybe I can call the pound to pick them up." ... "Do they even have a pound for cats?"

Meiko fell asleep shortly after.


	2. Chapter 2: the switch

[A/N:] Hello, all! Sorry how short the chapters have been, but who am I to break an (unintentional) trend?

On another note, I would like to say how much I appreciate all the attention that this story has been getting. It warms my heart, it truly does.

Well, that's all I really needed to cover. Without further ado, please enjoy this (shortasallhell) chapter!

NadiaSwift

CHAPTER TWO: the switch

A mysterious silhouette was prowling the Vocaloid house.

The hall was bathed in moonlight and the shadows lengthened and wavered on the walls as the Vocaloid family slept.

The shadow entered Kaito's room. The walls were (predictably) painted blue. A carton of Haagen Dazs ice cream, ("Limited Edition Red Velvet" flavor, evidently) lay on its side on the nightstand. His closet was filled with a thousand copies of his signature white coat, each coat paired on the hanger with a matching blue scarf. Kaito slept peacefully in the bed, a goofy smile on his face, hugging a teddy bear to his chest. The teddy bear wore an exact copy of Kaito's pajamas, complete with blue scarf.

The shadow rolled its eyes before continuing down the hall.

The room which Len shared with his sister was much too small. Len's side of the room was a study in perfect housekeeping. A desk, neatly organized, squatted in the corner. A page of his homework stuck out of a textbook, which laid closed on the desk. In glaring contrast, Rin's side of the room was a complete and total mess. Clothes were thrown everywhere, as Rin had a nasty habit of trying on clothes and then leaving the rejected articles in piles on the floor for someone, usually Len, to pick up and put away. Empty junk food packages littered her desk and magazines littered about everywhere else. Rin herself was snoring noisily in her bed, one of her legs hanging out over the side.

The shadow moved on.

Miku's bedroom was next. It was your typical sixteen-year-old girl's room. A vanity table, cosmetics neatly arranged, sat opposite her bed. On a shelf, a small Hachune Miku figure kept company with Miku's cell phone, which boasted a cute cellphone strap with a tiny leek dangling from the end. Directly over her desk hung a small cluster of picture frames. In one picture, they were all on vacation at the beach. While attempting to take a selfie, Miku had accidentally ended up capturing Rin terrorizing Len with a small shelled crab. In another, it was Christmas. Snow fell outside as Miku unwrapped a stuffed panda toy and Kaito graciously accepted a hand knit scarf from a very flustered Meiko. Happy, happy memories indeed.

Finally, the shadow reached its destination: Meiko's room. The room was almost as messy as Rin's, however it was empty sake cans that littered the floor, rather than junk food containers. Meiko always said that at the end of a day spent constantly cleaning up after her family, she deserved a break at night. As a result, the room was hardly ever cleaned.

The shadow hovered over Meiko's sleeping form, perching on the flat surface of the headboard. It reached out a paw to touch Meiko's forehead. Meiko's eyes popped wide open as she found herself gazing into a pair of glowing amber eyes.

Naturally, Meiko let out a scream powerful enough to shake walls.

All at once, the house awakened. Bedroom lights flickered on. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Rin emerged from her bedroom to lean against the doorframe.

"It's coming from Meiko's room!" Miku cried urgently. "She's in trouble!"

"As if that's any surprise," scoffed Kaito, a rather superior tone in his voice.

"Shut up, Kaito," Rin said, taking Meiko's place in the conversation. "Everyone knows you're the incompetent one in the family."

Kaito opened his mouth as though to fire back with a witty retort, but closed it again. He couldn't really argue with that one.

"Stop wasting time!" Len this time, voice urgent. "Meiko's in trouble, remember?"

"Oh," Rin shrugged, earning an eye roll from Len. "Oops."

With renewed purpose, they rushed to Meiko's room.

They gathered together at her doorway and witnessed a strange sight: Meiko, her whole body glowing, as she floated inches from the bed.

For a split second, they were immobilized by the fact that they had no idea what to do. Thankfully, Meiko helped with that one.

"Help me!" she screeched, shrilly. "Don't just stand there!"

They wasted no more time. All at once they attempted to pull her back to her bed, but upon contact something strange happened instead. They began to glow as well!

They barely had time to register this before the glow of their hands became a blinding flash of light, flaring before gradually fading to a deep black...


	3. Chapter 3: aftermath

Chapter 3: aftermath

"Meiko-san! Meiko-san, wake up!"

Slowly, Meiko opened her eyes, only to promptly shut them again. The light hurt! Everything hurt. This was worse than a hangover, and she'd certainly had plenty of those! "Urgh..." she moaned, "My head hurts like hell. I need some water or aspirin or _something_..."

A voice that sounded suspiciously like Miku's said apologetically. "Uh, sorry to say it, but we've got bigger fish to fry. Look."

With swaying steps, Meiko managed to stumble a few feet to crouch before a pool of water stemming from an open plastic water bottle. Cracking one eye carefully, she stared grudgingly into the puddle of stagnant water.

She screamed.

"Wha-!?" Meiko's hands (paws?) reached up to feel her face. To her horror, rather than smooth, porcelain skin she felt short, soft fur. Cat fur. Not only that, but she had whiskers, sprouting from either side of her nose and above her eyes. She looked exactly like that mangy stray cat!

"I...I'm a CAT?"

"You're not the only one."

Meiko turned to face her family.

Instead of Len as she knew him, Meiko saw a kitten with orange tabby stripes and Len's sky blue eyes sitting calmly near a lamppost. Rin looked much the same, except that her ears were completely white. Kaito was now a large tomcat with cerulean eyes and long, almost shaggy, white fur and a fluffy tail. Somehow he had retained his trademark blue scarf. Miku had become a cat somewhat akin to a Russian blue, slim and svelte, with blueish-gray fur. Her eyes, unlike the stray cat who she now resembled, were still turquoise.

"You guys, too?!" Meiko gasped.

Miku nodded sadly.

 _How had this happened?_

Meiko finally had the presence of mind to check out their surroundings. They seemed to be in the middle of town. Cars whizzed past on the streets and the sidewalk harbored a spotty collection of pedestrians, all of whom were giving a wide berth to the random cluster of cats gathered on the sidewalk. A little farther down the street and to their right was an electronics store, a wall of TV sets were stacked up in the store window, all showing the exact same channel in perfect sync.

"Ahem." Miku cleared her throat for attention, but was blatantly ignored.

Kaito swaggered over to sit next to Meiko, leaning over and nudging her in the side with his paw, a gesture that was glaringly human. "Y'know, you don't look half bad as a cat, Mei-chan."

Perhaps a bit predictably, Meiko bristled.

"Bite me."

Miku spoke louder. "Okay, let's refocus here, you guys! We have to figure out how to get back to being ourselves."

"But I like being a cat." Rin interjected.

"Yeah, well _I_ don't." Meiko retorted, scowling darkly.

Miku finally lost her patience, yowling angrily. "Guys! Shut _up_ , will you? Do you _have_ to argue twenty-four seven? Do you even stop to _breathe_?"

The group went silent, blinking in surprise at Miku, who, as they knew, rarely lost her temper, thoroughly chastised. In fact, it was this quality that made Miku and Len, to some, appear as being the _true_ parent-figures in the family. Meiko and Kaito often got too absorbed in bickering with each other to truly control the family.

Miku sniffed. "That's better."

"Uh, guys?"

Everyone turned to face Len, who had migrated and now sat directly in front the shop window of the aforementioned electronics store. He appeared to be watching the TVs. "Look," he said, pointing his paw at the window.

The family moved to cluster around Len. And their jaws dropped.

It was a news program. The anchorwoman was just at that moment switching to a new story. In the ribbon of text repeatedly running below, were the words, "VOCALOID FAMILY MELTDOWN?!". Then a video clip of what seemed to be their human selves in a recording booth, running wild. "Miku" was perched on the stool, her legs tucked under her, repeatedly meowing into the microphone. Meanwhile, "Rin" was playing with crumpled score pages, tossing them up and batting them about in a distinctly feline way. Finally, "Meiko" seemed to notice the film cameras and threw a water bottle at it, the screen displaying a few seconds of static, before returning to the anchorwoman.

The Vocaloid family was speechless. It was Meiko who finally came up with something to say:

"Well, shit."

Meiko's words acted as a catalyst that caused the whole family to effectively freak out.

"I can't believe this!" groaned Len, his tail lashing back in forth in irritation. "A bunch of stray cats are living our lives!"

"Yeah, there's no way that people will think that that cat is me!" Kaito interjected confidently. "Everyone knows that I'm not that dopey!"

Naturally, everyone ignored this comment.

"This is all your fault anyway, Meiko-neechan!" Rin accused, angrily. "If you had just been nice to the little kitties in the first place..."

"Oh, stuff it Rin," Meiko growled, advancing on Rin. "For all we know, it could be _your_ fault!"

Miku quickly moved to stand between the two, hoping to diffuse the tension and prevent a conflict. "We have no proof of anything right now. Besides..."

Meiko turned on Miku. "Besides what? We're cats! What are we supposed to do?"

"We're supposed to think about this! But I guess you guys don't get much practice with that, do you?" Miku retorted.

"I resent that!" Kaito interjected.

"Shut up, Kaito!" hissed Meiko. "Nobody cares!"

It fully would have continued on like this, with the Vocaloid Family lashing out at each other because they were all so freaked out they couldn't do much else. That is, if something, no, _someone_ , hadn't intervened…

 **[A/N:] Okey-dokey! Cliffhanger FTW, right? I took a looooong time doing that, I guess? Oh well. Stay tuned!**

 **~NadiaSwift (2016)**


	4. Chapter 4 : challenge and punishment

**[A/N:] I just want you all to know that I will more than likely rewrite these chapters and when I do I will be fixing lots and lots of things in the story. I appreciate all the support and attention that this story is getting and it makes me want to put out chapters for you guys as fast as I can.**

 **With that said, please enjoy this chapter!**

 **NadiaSwift (2016)**

 **Chapter 4 : challenge and punishment**

"My, my, my," said a strange voice, causing the whole family to start and whip around, identifying the source of the sound being from a nearby tree.

There a girl perched primly on a tree branch and was surveying the family with a distinct air of superiority. She appeared to be young, but something in her eyes seemed to contradict this notion quite strongly. But most incredible were the pair of snow white cat ears atop her head and the long, luxuriously fluffy cat tail that hung off the branch.

"What's ANOTHER stupid cat doing here?" Meiko growled under her breath, her tail lashing in agitation, quite clearly sick of all of the felines.

The mysterious cat girl ignored Meiko's comment. She spoke like a rich, privileged daughter of a high society family. "Off to quite a poor start, I think. I would have expected better from the famous Vocaloid family."

"But, wait!" Miku held her paw out in an extremely human 'hold it' gesture. "What are you talking about? Are we like this because we're being tested?"

The cat girl's superior air intensified. "No. This is your punishment. What did those stray cats ever do to you? Lucky for them, I, the Supreme Protector of All Felines, was there to witness your crime."

"But Rin was kind to them! She took them into her house!" Miku objected. "Kaito named one and even fed it ice cream! Why would we deserve punishment?"

For the first time the cat girl appeared dismayed for a moment and stayed silent for a couple beats.

One.

Two.

When she spoke again her voice was completely different, quiet and very tired. "The rest of you were an unfortunate casualty. An accident. I only intended to punish the short-haired, angry one."

"I knew it!" Rin exclaimed loudly, unable to stop herself. "I _knew_ it was your fault, Meiko-nee!"

In the face of the truth, Meiko remained silent, for once unable to say anything. She seethed, the expression on her face cycling freely between outraged indignation and shamed guilt.

Len spoke up this time, voice carefully measured. "How do we go back to the way we were?"

The cat girl's face returned to it's original, haughty expression.

"You must prove to me that you have changed," she said, her words quite obviously aimed at Meiko. "That's all."

By Meiko's words had come back in angry rush. "And how in the hell are we supposed to do that?!"

Again, the cat girl elegantly ignored Meiko's hot-tempered words. "Do a good deed for three felines. Then I'll return you to your original forms."

And within the blink of an eye she was gone.


End file.
